Paul and Lucy Spadoni periodically live in Tuscany to explore Paul’s Italian roots, practice their Italian and enjoy “la dolce vita.”
All work is copyrighted and may not be reprinted without written permission from the author, who can be contacted at www.paulspadoni.com

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Connection found between Spadoni families of Tacoma and Gig Harbor

Friday, April 19, 2013

I have written almost nothing about my Spadoni family tree
research this year, yet I have actually spent far more time in the church
archives than any previous year. The reason for my silence is that the work has
gone extremely slowly, though I finally have a breakthrough to report: I confirmed
the last puzzle piece that shows how the Tacoma Spadoni family is related to
the Gig Harbor and Seattle families.

Thus I have achieved two research goals, the other being to
connect the two large Seghieri families who live side by side in San Salvatore,
though I am still far short of what I had hoped to accomplish during this trip.
I ran into a dead end in my research into the family of Narciso Spadoni of
Chicago. I traced his line at Borgo a Buggiano back to a Francesco Spadoni, born
in 1764. His father is listed as Simone and his grandfather as Francesco, but
their births are not recorded at Borgo a Buggiano, Buggiano, Stignano or Ponte
Buggianese, so I am going to give up for now. Maybe Narciso’s descendants will pay
Andrea Mandroni to continue from where I left off.

I am still slowly pursuing a line that traces back from four
interesting brothers—Guido, Italo, Gino and Bruno. Guido had a large family in
San Francisco. Italo has the plaque in his honor in Ponte Buggianese, Bruno
died in prison in Rome and Gino was accused of murder in Tacoma. Today I found
the baptism record of one of their ancestors, Pavol’Antonio, born in 1762 in
Ponte Buggianese. His father was listed as Pietro and his grandfather was
Pasquale, who may have been born around 1700. However, the archives will only
be open one day next week, so I may not make it back far enough to find a
connection to the Spadoni family of Stignano, which would allow me to tie
everything together. Next week is my last week here.

One reason the research is going so slowly is that I am recording
every Spadoni birth I find instead of just skipping backwards to search for a
single line. This will pay off in the future if I find any other Spadoni family
members from Ponte Buggianese who are hoping to trace their ancestry. It is
also going slowly because I am doing the work myself instead of watching Andrea
do it for me. I am painstakingly advancing in the art of deciphering Old
Italian script. It helps that I see the same names appear over and over again:
Cortesi, Galligani, Menicuccini, Lorenzini, Giuntoli, Teglia, Orsi, Buonaguidi,
Pellegrini and another 50-some that I see quite regularly. The first time I see
a new name, I may have to ask Andrea for help, but now I can recognize many of the
strange shapes that represent the letters of the alphabet.

I have a ton of information about the Tacoma family now,
because I found birth certificates at the comune
for all six of the brothers and sisters of Guido and Sabatino, the two who lived
out their adult lives in Tacoma. One, Ottavina, married Luigi Armando Giuntoli
and moved to Chicago. Another, Umiliana, died in France and has descendants in
Argentina. The other four died in Ponte Buggianese.

It turns out that their father, Agostino, had the same
great-great grandfather as did Michele Spadoni of Gig Harbor and Michele
Spadoni of Seattle. This common ancestor, LorenzoSpadoni, was born in 1723, so my grandfather
was the third cousin of the father of Guido and Sabatino. The Seattle family
was a little closer, as Agostino and Seattle Michele also had the same great
grandfather, Angelo. I am very happy to have made this connection, as last year
I had a very pleasant meeting with Ida (Spadoni) Holt, the daughter of Guido, along
with one of Ida’s daughters.

I had a number of other second-level goals that will not be
accomplished this year. I have been contacted by Ray and Roy Spadoni from
California, and I had hoped I might do some research for them as well. Their
ancestor was not born in Ponte Buggianese, but somewhere very close by, so they
are surely related. However, this would mean looking into an entirely different
set of church archives, and it is not immediately clear which set, because his
children were reportedly born in a variety of nearby places. I also had wanted
to look into the history of great grandmother Ines Capocchi and to find out
what became of the eight brothers and sisters of my great grandfather Pietro
Spadoni.

I love coming here, so I don’t really need any additional
reasons for wanting to come back next year, but the hope of solving these
mysteries does add to the appeal. And I suppose if I solve these questions, I
will just find even more for the following year.

No comments:

Post a Comment

An Amazon.com "Italy memoir" BEST SELLER

‟An American family spends a year in Italy–a dream, a disaster, laughter and tears, an unforgettable memory. Warning: this book may cause you to book a flight to Italy. Enjoy!” –Maria Coletta McLean, author of My Father Came from Italy

Follow us by Email

Search This Blog

About Me

First off, before you hassle me about our title, Lucy thought of it. Yes, I know some people may think broad is derogatory, but the etymology is uncertain and she doesn’t find it offensive, and it made me laugh. We have been married since 1974 and are empty-nesters now, which allows me to bring my submerged Italophilia into the open. We first came to live in Italy from February-April in 2011 and have returned during the same months every year. From 2011-2015, we lived in San Salvatore, at the foot of the hilltop city Montecarlo, where my paternal grandparents were born, raised and, in 1908, married. In late 2015, we bought a home in Montecarlo. We come for a variety of purposes: We want to re-establish contact with distant cousins in both Nonno’s and Nonna’s families, we want to learn the language and see what it is like to live as Italians in modern Italy, we like to travel and experience different cultures. Even if we aren’t successful at achieving these purposes, we love Italy and enjoy every moment here, so there is no chance we will be disappointed. I am grateful to God for giving me a wife who is beautiful, clever, adaptable and willing to jump into my dreams wholeheartedly.